Charlie Longbrief picked up the phone on a Friday afternoon.  He was accustomed to these late Friday afternoon calls.   People with problems always seemed to call at this time because they need peace of mind over the weekend.  It was his friend Joe Smith who worked as sales manager for Shake, Rattle & Roll, Inc. a local baby toy manufacturer. 

"Charlie I

Lake_wobegon I read with interest fellow IowaBiz author Victor Aspengren’s article on Forget the Ratings in conducting annual performance reviews.  Victor points out that most companies use subjective rating systems in their performance reviews which leave everyone in the company, supervisors and employees alike, dreading the annual review process.

What happens next is what I call

First with Drew McLellan on marketing, and now with Shirley Poertner on leadership, the IowaBiz.com free breakfast series is off to a fast start.  Shirley spoke yesterday about accountability in the workplace.  A concept that is frequently missing in many organizations.

Shirley says we have fallen into a "blame" society. 

  • If you spill hot coffee in

It took us awhile but Sullivan & Ward’s Iowa Law Blog is now live.  It was designed with the able assistance of LexBlog.  (The same company that designed and maintains this blog).

While Rush on Business tends to focus only on issues impacting Iowa businesses, we are taking a broader approach with the Iowa

Shanti Atkins of the Compliance Training Blog has an interesting blog post about the crippling trend of wage and hour litigation.  The post references a recent BusinessWeek article discussing how plaintiffs’ employment lawyers are "printing" money  with wage and hour cases.  One of the plaintiff’s lawyers is quoted as saying,

"I can hit a company

A federal court jury in New York says Isiah Thomas and the New York Knicks are liable for the sexual harassment of a former female executive.  The jury found the former employee was subjected to unwanted sexual advances and verbal insults.  A retaliation claim also was alleged.  While Isiah Thomas still maintains his innocence and vows